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Mentality
At the next stage mind develops bringing another new principle of existence-mentality. (Ibid, pg.712) It shows itself in the animal who has a practical intelligence, can strategize and plan and meet the new demands of circumstance. "All is not in it a half-conscious instinct; the animal prepares human intelligence." (Ibid, pg.713)
The human being shows a further manifestation of consciousness for there is at first a transition from the vital mind to the reflecting and thinking mind. He is capable of higher-order cognitive activities. Secondly, there is a widening of consciousness so that he can include things like aesthetics and is capable for a more complete conscious experience. And thirdly, mind takes up the lower grades in the evolutionary ascent and integrates them by imparting intelligent values to their actions and reactions. What was crude stuff in the lower grades is turned with artistry into finished work. The animal thinks mechanically and automatically but the human being is capable of ideative and reflective faculty. "The awaking consciousness in the animal is the unskilled primitive artisan of mind, in man it is the skilled craftsman and can become....master and adept." (Ibid, pg.714)
Chit-Shakti
We now observe two peculiarities of the higher development-Ascent and Integration. "Ascent is the first necessity, but an integration is an accompanying intention of the spirit in Nature". (Ibid, pg.715) As the human being reaches the heights in the evolutionary saga, he looks down on the lower nature with the twin power of Chit-Shakti or consciousness-force which get translated as knowledge and will. He looks at the stages crossed and now wishes to raise them up and taste the delight of the higher ranges. Still he wants their consent to accept the higher values for perfection and if they do not consent, he can deal with them harshly or trample them under his foot. "And that indeed is the true inmost aim and meaning of ethics, discipline and askesis, to lessen and tame, purify and prepare to be fit instruments the vital and physical and lower mental life so that they may be transformed into notes of the higher mental and eventually the supramental harmony, but not to mutilate and destroy them". (Ibid, pg.714-715)
The downward looking of Chit-Shakti translated as knowledge-will is present in the case of every plane of the evolutionary scale and reveals the secret Spirit's attempt at progressive self-revelation (Ibid, pg.715):
(a) The plant-soul takes a nervous-material view of its existence so as to get out of itself all vital-physical intensity possible. This vital-physical intensity is pronounced in it relative to its rudimentary scale when compared to the animal's propensity in this regard.
(b) The animal takes a mentalised sense-view of its vital-physical existence so as to get out of itself all sense-value possible which is more pronounced than in the human being.
(c) The human being looking down from the plane of knowledge and will, attempts to get out of mind and life and sense a higher intensity in other values -intellectual aesthetic, ethical, spiritual and practical values by which one can enlarge, subtilize and elevate the existing basic values of life. He does not abandon the animal reactions but sensitively mentalises them. As he progresses he demands the pain of rejection of the lower animal values-he embarks on a transformative journey.
But the human being does not only gaze downwards, he also gazes upwards to what is above him, and inwards to what is deep and occult within oneself. And all these gazes -downwards, upwards and inwards are done consciously - a faculty where he scores above animals. And he puts on the double nature of Sachchidananda as he is no longer only driven by the executive Force or Prakriti like the animal but seeks to identify with the soul within -with the Purusha. That itself is too much for him, he cannot fully identify as yet with the soul but his yearning is there and it can reach intense levels. This is because he is imperfect and he has to strive always for a progressive perfection. "It is in his human nature, in all human nature, to exceed itself by conscious evolution, to climb beyond what he is." (Ibid, pg.716) And not only the individual but the human race also aspires for a superior humanity-to rise nearer to a divine manhood or Supermanhood.
The Physical Mind
The mind itself is composed of grades and each grade is a series in itself; there are planes and sub-planes of consciousness and to progress, our mental self has to ascend this stair. But at the beginning, the mind is poised at the lowest level of cognitive experience-the physical mind or the physical-mental which controls the material consciousness through the sensory schemata. It is the habitual mind dealing with the most material and trivial things. "For the physical mind takes its stand on matter and the material world, on the body and the bodily life, on sense-experience and on a normal practical mentality and its experience". (Ibid, pg.717) (For example when we get out of our house we seldom think big but are plagued with the habitual thoughts -whether we have locked the house properly, whether we have switched off the gas, whether our daughter will safely return from school and so -this is the physical mind of the physical man!). The physical man regards the higher contents of life as useful adjuncts or superfluous luxuries, treating them as subjective, less substantial extension from physical realities. In the formation of the physical mind, there is "no power for progress" (Ibid. pg. 718) or only material progress. It is the first mental status but we cannot be restricted to this status, we have to move forward.
The Vital Mind
Above the physical mind is the vital mind which is kinetic and thus a great force in evolutionary nature. It is projected by an obscurer life-soul, not the psychic being but "a frontal formation of the vital Purusha". (Ibid) It looks upon physical existence as a field for life-experiment and life-experience, for expressing ambition, power, love, passion and adventure. It is supported by a subliminal vital being which is in contact with the universal life-force. The vital man moulded by these factors is the man of emotion and passion, force and action , strives for life-affirmation and life-expansion and at a higher level becomes the breaker of bonds, seeker of new horizons. His mental life is enslaved to vital desires but if his mental interest is sufficiently strong, he can become the sensitive artist, the dynamic poet of life or the champion of a cause.
The mental Man
Above the vital mind is the domain of the mind-plane of pure thought and intelligence which produces the thinker, the philosopher, the scientist, the idealist and the dreamer. (Ibid, pg.719) The mental man also has his lower material and vital life which can pull him down, which can make him compromised but these are not impediments to his greatest development for there the thinking will and intelligence governs the vital and the physical. Of course, the mental man is unable to transform his nature but can control and harmonise it and impose a mental ideal, can balance, refine or subtilize the stuff of our half-constructed being. He can consciously develop himself and be a sort of self-creator.
The Inner (Subliminal) Mind
The mind of pure intelligence has an inner or subliminal mind which is more powerful than the ordinary mind. At present we do not understand its activities and consider them as intangibles and imponderables but in reality they are real and patent and greatly sought after as truths to be realized. (Ibid, pg.720) There are actually three degrees of mentality; firstly the mental man, secondly the mind which is self-dominating and self-formative and conscious of an ideal it wants to realize and thirdly the high intellect of the thinker or sage which is not only ideative but invested with a great force for effectuation, more powerful than that of the vital mind. These are not merely psychological types but stages in the mental being's attempt at self-exceeding. (Ibid) To go further one has to invoke the spiritual dimension.
The human being can thus travel further in two directions once he reaches the inner or subliminal mind. He can ascend upwards to the spiritual mind, to the Superconscience, to Sachchidananda. And one can travel deep within oneself and open to the occult spirit within us, the psychic being and also open to the heights above us and "this double opening is the secret of a new evolution." (Ibid, pg.721) We ascend to higher ranges while doing a larger integration and spiritualize all the powers of our nature through this new evolution. For the mental being is not the last, one has to grow into a spiritual being which is "the supreme supernormal effort of human creation". (Ibid) One needs to invoke the spiritual mind, the higher mind and the overmind to grow into a greater being.
It is very difficult to progress from the surface being. True the vital man and mental man has brought mankind to the present level far surpassing the animal life but human nature needs a transformation which the surface being cannot give. At best there can be an exaggeration of his existing faculties, "a Nietzschean Supermanhood.. can only colossalise the human creature" (Ibid, pg.722) but nothing more. One has to know to live within, in the inner being or poise oneself on the spiritual and intuitive planes for further evolutionary progress.
The Spiritual Man
This further evolutionary progress will bring in the spiritual man, But this new evolutionary journey will have two characteristics. (Ibid) So long the evolution proceeded automatically. But now it will need a conscious effort and will of the human mind. And secondly, it will not lead to a progress of our surface nature but a breaking of the walls of Ignorance so that one can go deeper to the secret principle of our being, grow wider to the cosmic consciousness and soar higher to the superconscience. One breaks the wall of Ignorance and gets identified with the secret soul. But this also is an initial state, not the final culmination. It is a first approach of mind to spirit but it cannot make a radical change; something more has to be done, "we have to live deeper within, we have to exceed our present consciousness and surpass our present status of Nature". (Ibid)
If we learn to live within our deepest recesses or be poised above in the higher ranges, a new principle of consciousness would manifest and lead to an initial unfolding of the divine life.
The gravitational pull and resurgence
Humanity has to thus advance but its steps are countered by a gravitational pull of the physical consciousness. (Ibid, pg.723) It suffers from sceptical folly, from doubts, from indolence, from intellectual and spiritual timidity. The result is that only a few advance and the mass is left behind. But victories of the kind may have been achieved in the past and are stored as subconscious memories in the cosmic consciousness from where a resurgence can take place. This resurgence causes an evolutionary progress. It is not necessary that the whole race be transformed from mental to spiritual beings but a general acceptance of the ideal and conscious concentration are necessary to carry the evolutionary flow to its definitive achievement; "it is the constant upward effort that has kept humanity alive and maintained for it its place in front of creation." (Ibid, pg.724)
A new integration
Evolution begins with an initial foundation in Matter from which an ascent of Nature occurs and then from the greater height and wideness, a new integration of the whole Nature. But as evolution progresses a change occurs. The physical foundation of Matter remains but a further evolution needs a new foundation. Matter solely cannot remain a foundation of consciousness.
The foundation of an evolutionary progression "will be the new spiritual status above or the unveiled soul-status within us". (Ibid, pg.724) We will be identified with our inner being or higher being. The outer being will only be "an annexe through which the true being meets the universe". (Ibid) The old inconscient foundation will be permeated by inflow of light and knowledge from above and the depths of the being join the heights. "An integral consciousness will become the basis of an entire harmonization of life through the total transformation, unification, integration of the being and the nature". (Ibid, pg.725)
Date of Update:
31-Dec-25
- By Dr. Soumitra Basu
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